Friday, 30 March 2012

My French pastry baking class

I know we are coming to the end of the week, but guess what I did last weekend! You obviously thinking: "of course it is going to be a French pastry course, since you have written that on the title"! Yes yes... that is exactly what I did and it's because I wanted to face my fear and finally be able to bake all these complicated pastries (especially puff pastry since it is more time consuming than I thought). Our tutor Pino Ficara taught us to bake Praline Mille Feuille (Napaleon Pastry)...

...Chocolate Eclair, Madeleine...

... and Creme Brulle....hmmm!

I was particularly happy to see savory option there as after all this sweet I felt a little too overwhelmed (I had cake before the class - really bad idea). Here it comes....

1. Pre-cook vegetables: in deep pot over low heat add butter and olive oil, add onions, pinch of salt and about 1 tablespoon of sugar. Let onion cook gently without coloration, remove onto tray lined with foil and let cool.
2. In a oven tray add enough oil to barely cover bottom and over medium heat cook all the vegetables separately until tender. let it cool.
3. Preheat the oven at 200C. Roll puff pastry into square, place on the tray lined with baking paper and with a fork prick dough well to prevent it from puffing too high when cooking.
4. Place cooled onion onto ready pastry,

then arrange the other cooked vegetables.

Brush the sides with the egg yolk for the glaze...

Bake immediately until golden, let cool a few minutes before slicing and serving.

If you would like to attend the french pastry class yourself like me, go to http://www.bakewithmaria.com/courses/

No comments:

Follow by Email

About Me

I will start with saying that I was never born as a perfect cook. I only
got in love with baking and food later in life when I moved to London
and had no other option as learning to satisfy my all time hunger for
cakes. Yes, it is bad habit to eat sweet, especially just after the
dinner but every time I can't resist the feeling that somehow the dinner
is just not completed without the dessert!
My learning took bit by bit from watching my friends cook and eventually
from following the recipes. My first time experience on baking was when
I was 9 years old. I baked a cake to impress my mum for her birthday. I
don’t know what went wrong, but it came out really flat, thin and
unbaked inside. I will always remember the expression on my mum's face:
she was trying to eat it with the smile on her face. So... if after this
I can bake I believe everybody have a potential to do it too. The most
important ingredient for it is love for food!
Anyway, I am coming to the end. My main dream is to open a community cafe So
keep following my blog if you interested to see my journey towards this goal.
Thank you so much for your support :-)